Taking a Chance
by Calie1
Summary: Oliver finally calls Chloe out.


"You could have at least answered," she snapped at him angrily. "Text me, something."

He sighed in defeat and leaned back against the table. "What is it now Chloe?" He threw his hands up slightly. "Why am I your punching bag this week?" She turned her head and looked at him with a slightly annoyed expression then looked away again. "I think we went two weeks without you glaring or rolling your eyes at me."

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm sure I at least did it while your back was turned." She wasn't going to admit that he was most likely right. "Neither you nor Clark can ever answer the phone, only when it's convenient for you."

"Ah, so that's what this is about. Clark." She worked in silence, back still facing him, allowing him to tilt his head to the side and regard her silently. Since his return he'd been much more compliant, at least where she was concerned. It had been probably a bad idea to give her so much leeway. "Look, I know you have issues with Clark deserting you..." She turned again, glaring at him, warning him away from the subject, but he figured it was as good a time as any to talk about it. "And I'm sure you still hold something against me for copping out on you also." She turned away again only confirming his suspicion. "It's not going to happen Chloe."

"I don't have time for this," she said curtly and began to walk across the room, far away from him. There was a fair amount of distance between them as she passed in front of him, but he still managed to reach forward and grab her wrist, pulling her over to stand in front of him, just barely between his legs. She sighed and tossed her hair back, keeping her eyes trained on something above his head. When he didn't let go she finally turned her eyes to face him. "What?"

There was anger in her voice. More than should have been there just because he missed a couple of phone calls. "I'm sorry." She sighed and looked away again, her lips pursed together in a tense manner. "For all of it. But you have to let this go. You can't keep carrying around this chip on your shoulder, still scared of being alone."

"Whatever," she said with a roll of her eyes, yet still wouldn't look at him.

She was avoiding him. Her inability to look him in the eye spoke volumes. "Look at me." Nothing. So he brought his hand up to her face and forced her to face him. She tried to pull her face from him, but he wasn't having any of that. "Chloe..." He warned and slid his hand back to grasp the back of her head. "You want to stay up here, hiding, pretending like it doesn't hurt. You want to feel like you can keep yourself separate from everybody else. You can't. You're going to have to trust people eventually."

They didn't have time to delve into her buried issues. Even so, she couldn't stop the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes as he reminded her of her loneliness and the fear of being forgotten. Unable to turn her head from him she settled for turning her eyes upward. Anything to avoid the display of emotion.

"Is this what you want, to lock yourself away in here the rest of your life? Not have any chance of finding someone that cares about you or the other way around?"

She looked back to him, not caring if he could still see tears in her eyes. "I'm never going to make that mistake again."

There it was, her pain and disappointment rearing it's ugly head. "You can't just stop it."

"Watch me," Chloe shot back. "I don't need it."

"What? The chance that someone out there might actually care about you and you might have to put your heart on the line again? Take a chance?"

"I don't care."

"Yes you do." She shook her head insistently and tried to pull away. He brought his other hand up to cup her face. "Yes you do."

"I don't care!" she screamed, the hint of tears in her voice, and yanked his hands from her face. She spun quickly on her heel, but he grabbed her arm again, yanking her back around. She was prepared to yell at him again, but not for the lips that met hers. She grasped his shoulders for balance and remained still as he kissed her. It wasn't until he pulled away, hand cradling the back of her head and forehead resting against her own did she press her lips against his. It was the end for her after that. He spun her around, pressing her against the table, trapping her between his body and the furniture.

His body bent over hers, forcing her to lean back. And she would have fallen were it not for the arm that wrapped around her waist as she began to lose her balance. She couldn't think as he kissed her or even attempt to find some kind of control. It seemed as if they both fought to kiss the other deeper, harder. His arm tightened on her waist and she hooked hers around his neck, pulling him down, while burying her other free hand in his hair. It was a push and tug of wills and need. That was, until Oliver finally backed down. She felt the withdrawal and leaned forward into him. His head pulled back, but he didn't release her, his arm just as tight around her as before. She couldn't look at him, but she couldn't pull away either. Instead she opted for dropping her head against his chest. Slowly her arms slipped from around him, losing their will to even hold on, and rested against his chest. Her body soon followed, leaning against him, too tired to even stand, and hoping that he would pity her enough to hold her upright.

"You've got to trust me," he whispered into her hair and closed his eyes. It was too easy to imagine that she'd give in, not fight him. It wasn't right what he was feeling for her. Yet here he was, holding her, hoping she'd realize that she did need other people before it was some other man standing in front of her and not him.

"I can't," she whispered, knowing the regret in her voice was evident. She wanted to trust him. She wanted to throw herself into it, not worrying about the consequences of whether everything would turn out okay or not. Things had gone wrong so many times in her life that she couldn't take that chance again. She splayed her hands across her chest and closed her eyes. "I just can't take that chance again."

So many things had gone wrong over the past year or so. They all had issues to deal with, things to get over, before they could even move on. Oliver had begun his healing. He didn't suspect that he had changed much, but he did like to think that in the future he might handle things more maturely. Clark was finally beginning to accept that there was no normal life for himself and that the least he could do was try to balance his responsibilities to keep people safe and his own life. Chloe though, she hadn't even started. Unlike Clark and Oliver who had acted out their grievances, Chloe had pushed hers to the deepest depths. She expected them to stay there way forever, but that would have been too much to ask. "I understand Chloe, I do. Better than most. I know you want to protect yourself from being hurt, but you can't. You're only going to be alone. Just let me try." She shook her head against his chest. There was no doubt in his mind that she was dead set against risking her heart for anything.

Gently, he brushed her hair from her cheek and pushed it behind her ear. She swallowed roughly at the gesture, nervous and scared as to what it would mean for her heart. His lips pressed softly against her cheek, and then behind her ear. He was making it too hard to walk away and too easy to fall for him. "Ollie..." she pleaded. The sound of it was sad and pathetic to her ears, but it didn't matter. She was too scared of what the end result would be to his advances. "Don't." His lips trailed lower, fingers brushing across her neck to move her hair to the side and cradle the back of her head. "Please..." He nudged her head to the side and trailed kisses down her neck. Her breath was coming faster now, shakier then before. "Please, don't hurt me."

He sighed, a little more forlornly then he would have liked, and buried his face into her neck. "You're already hurting me." Her breath seemed to hitch slightly and her hands tightened in his shirt. "Just try. I'm not expecting date night, because someone is always trying to end the world, and I'm not expecting long kisses goodbye because half the time we're in a rush anyway, or hour long phone calls because I don't think either one of us could spare the time. And I can't promise you perfection because lord knows I'm far from it and to be truthful you aren't much closer." She snorted into his shoulder and he couldn't help but smile into her neck. Picking his head up slowly, he only stopped when his face was inches above her own. "But I can promise you that this time I won't run." She hadn't given him the go yet, but she hadn't said no either. It was the way her brow creased slightly with worry that actually made him think she was beginning to fold.

"Don't make promises you can't keep." Doubt still lingered in her mind and in her heart. She knew all too well of Oliver's past transgressions and his inability to commit. "I don't want normal either, but you're infamous for running away when things get serious."

It stung to hear her say it out loud. His lack of commitment, his lapse into cheating on one or two girls. "Serious always meant questions and expectations that I couldn't meet. But you don't have any questions for me because you already know all the answers, and your expectations aren't unreasonable because you already know what is going on and understand. And I won't expect anything from you that you can't give. But I do expect you to trust me Chloe. Because I know underneath it all you don't want to be alone and I know I don't."

"You make it sound like it's so easy. To just let go of it all and move on."

"It's not." He cradled her face in both of his hands and pressed his forehead against hers. "I care about you, more than I ever expected to. But I want you anyway. I know everything about you Chloe, the last thing I would want to do is hurt you. I'm just asking you to try." He searched her eyes, wishing he could find some way to ease the distrust there. "And I promise you I'll be there when you need me, even though I still may not answer the phone on the first try." She smirked slightly, even though he could see she was fighting it. He couldn't help but do so in return. "And when you need your space you'll have it, but when you don't want to be alone I'll be there. And I'll do my best to keep you safe even though I'm just as mortal as the next guy."

"Hardly," she quipped. Because the last thing she considered the Green Arrow to be was normal.

"It's still biologically true, but I suppose it's the thought that counts."

She smiled softly, but it slowly faded away into something more somber. "You swear?" Her heart was pounding, almost aching to be let out and fearing to be put on the line again at the same time.

He lowered his face as he began to feel her will give. Their noses brushed, but he didn't lean in any further. "I swear. As long as you swear not to push me away." There was a brief pause where he waited, their intermingled breaths the only sound in the large quiet room. Then she nodded and he didn't even let out a breath of relief before he was closing the last bit of distance between them and kissing her.


End file.
